Past, Present, and Future
by mugglegrl84
Summary: One Shot. Ginny's POV. Ginny looks back on the final battle of Hogwarts ten years later.


**Past, Present, and Future**

I can still remember that day as if it were yesterday, even though it's been almost ten years. I remember the feeling of excitement when my DA coin heated in my pocket and the twins and I snuck out of Aunt Muriels. I remember my nervousness over seeing Harry again for the first time in nearly a year. But most of all, I remember the fear I felt for what we were about to do.

I may have been only sixteen at the time, but I wasn't as naive as my parents and brothers thought I was. I knew exactly what was at stake that night. And I was willing to sacrifice everything, and I do mean _everything_, if it meant Voldemort would be gone forever.

Looking back, I can still see the expression on Harry's face when I stepped into the Room of Requirement, even if I didn't recognize it for what it was at the time. I was so ready to fight that I interpreted his look of utter shock and his reluctance to allow me to fight as his belief that I couldn't handle myself in battle. Hadn't I been there at the Department of Mysteries? What about last year when Dumbledore died?

Of course, now I know that he wasn't worried that I wouldn't be able to handle the battle, he was simply trying to keep me safe. You see, even at the age of seventeen, he was in love with me.

* *

"Gin?" came Harry's voice from my left, effectively pulling me from my thoughts. I look up from the blanket I had been knitting to find Harry standing before me, Albus on his hip and James clinging to his leg. "I'm taking the heathens out back for a bit. Will you be alright in here?" he said.

I nod and he gives me that lopsided grin that I love so much as I watch him troop out the back door with the boys in tow. Sitting in the wooden rocker that was a gift from my parents when I first found out I was pregnant with James, my thoughts begin to wander back to that fateful night in May 1998 once more.

* *

I was elated when Harry frantically ran back into the Room of Requirement asking me to leave, never mind the fact that he shouted after me to come back in. I darted head first into the battle, my wand raised. I found Tonks' hunkered down by a broken window at the far end of the corridor and raced over to help her. This is where I stayed, shooting curses out the window, even after Tonks' ran off into the battle in search of her husband. Harry, Ron and Hermione disappeared once more into the Room of Requirement leaving me along in the corridor. I knew then that I couldn't remain stationary so I set off into the battle and in search of my family

* *

I once again have to sit my knitting to the side and take a deep breath. It's been a long time since I thought about that night and I know from the stories I've been told that my brother Fred was killed right after this moment.

I allowed my gaze to wander through the window and into the back yard where Harry was chasing a laughing James while Albus toddled along after them. I smiled at the sight of them and rested a hand on my swollen abdomen.

* *

The next memory that really stands out for me I wasn't even sure was real until months after the war. Voldemort had just called off his fighters and asked for Harry to turn himself over in one hours time. I was out on the grounds helping the injured and praying that Harry wouldn't listen. I was convinced that we could beat him. But then as I was kneeling down on the ground next to a girl I recognized to be a forth year Ravenclaw who must had snuck back in after the evacuation, I sensed someone approaching me from behind and heard the distinct sound of a cloak gliding across the grass. I spun around but no one was there. I tried to convince myself that it was just my mind playing tricks on me after the intensity of the battle. I didn't want to believe that it could possibly be Harry sneaking off into the forest to an unknown fate under the protection of the invisibility cloak. When my suspicions were confirmed those months after the battle, I have to admit that I was angry at first. But would I have let him go if he would have stopped? Would he have had the strength to do what he knew he must do if he had? No, probably not.

But knowing this now still didn't make it any easier when I saw Hagrid carrying Harry's limp body out of the forest. The thought of it now still gives me chills, even though I know that he was just feigning death. But in that moment, I wanted nothing more then to die along with him. But the grief I felt soon melted into a kind of anger I had never felt before. My grip tightened on my wand and I vowed then to do everything in my power to ensure that Harry did not die in vain.

But then Neville broke loose from the charms that were holding us back in the entrance hall of the castle. I watched in horror as Voldemort placed a full body bind on Neville and summoned the sorting hat from the Headmaster's office and placed it on his head. I screamed in rage when Voldemort set the hat on fire. Before anyone had time to act, however, Grawp chose that moment to wander onto the grounds in search of Hagrid and reinforcements were coming in from all sides. I saw a glint of silver from the corner of my eye as Neville held the sword of Gryffindor high above his head and watched as the head of Voldemort's great snake spun through the air.

In all the chaos that followed, I tried in vain to find Harry's body, and I knew from his shouts, that Hagrid was doing the same. But in all the commotion, I couldn't locate it and soon I was engulfed in a battle with none other then Bellatrix Lestrange. Hermione and Luna both rushed forward to help and I have no idea how long we actually battled before a killing cursed sailed past me, missing me by mere inches. That's when my mother came to our aid. I don't remember ever seeing that look in her eyes, and I haven't seen it since, but when she started dueling Bellatrix, I realized just how tough my mother really was. And then just as quickly as it started, Bellatrix had fallen. Voldemort screamed in pure fury and we all spun around, knowing what would happen next. I closed my eyes. I had lost so many already and I couldn't stand the thought of seeing my mother die, but when I opened them, I saw that a shield charm had been placed between my mother and Voldemort. I looked around with everyone else, trying to find the source of the spell and my heart literally skipped a beat when I saw Harry emerge from under the invisibility cloak. A small smile stretched across my face at the sight of him alive, but it quickly disappeared. It wasn't over yet.

But then it was. Harry Potter, the Chosen One, defeated the Dark Lord. I wanted nothing more then to rush forward and throw myself into his arms, but instead I hung back. I knew that he was going to need his space, I knew that he was tired, and I knew that we had _time_, something that we never had before. In the months that followed the battle, I finally got the chance to get to know the real Harry. The Harry that didn't have an uncertain future hanging over his head. The Harry that could finally begin to imagine what his future could be like. And in those months, I fell even more in love with him then I already was.

* *

Opening my eyes, I glance once more out into the back yard and watch Harry sitting in the sand box helping the boys build a castle. Smiling, I pick up my abandoned knitting and resume making the pink blanket I started on last week. Harry had already told me about a hundred times that I should have picked a more neutral color for the blanket as we decided not to find out the sex of the baby. But don't ask me how, I just know that this one will be a girl. This one is Lily.

* * * * *

**A/N: I had fun writing this one from Ginny's point of view. I hope you enjoyed. Please let me know what you think by reviewing!!!**


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